glossario

With regard to a mortgage, portability is an operation that enables the borrower to pay off their mortgage by signing a new loan agreement with another lender for an amount equal to the outstanding mortgage, without the original lender’s consent being necessary. By law, the settlement of the old loan and granting of the new loan are entirely free of charge.

For consumers with current accounts, portability, or switching, refers to when a customer transfers the positive balance and recurring payment services (for example, automatic payments of utility bills and mortgage instalments payments, automatic deposits of salaries and pension payments, etc.) from an account at one bank to another account at another bank. It is not difficult to do: for consumers, the law says that switching should take no more than 12 working days to complete and be done for free.

For more information, you can consult the Bank of Italy’s website: Services for the public/Basic information/Switching services between bank accounts.